Michael Fryzel

Michael E. Fryzel is an Attorney and Financial Services Consultant with offices in Chicago, Illinois. He can be reached at meflaw@aol.com.

Utilizing his extensive experience as a proven state and federal regulator of financial service industries along with his knowledge of the laws and regulations impacting those businesses, his full service consulting business focuses on providing advice to the principals, boards and management of credit unions, bank, check cashing operations, consumer loan companies, money transmitters and other financial service businesses.

Mr. Fryzel is available to:
• Appear on panels as well as speak at conferences, annual meetings and planning sessions
• Represent clients before state and federal regulatory agencies as well as having the expertise of appearing before panels and committees of both state and federal governments
• Facilitate training sessions for boards of directors
• Counsel credit unions seeking merger partners
• Conduct strategic planning sessions

Mr. Fryzel was nominated to the NCUA Board by President George W. Bush on November 30, 2007. After U.S. Senate confirmation, Mr. Fryzel took office as NCUA Chairman on July 29, 2008. Mr. Fryzel served as Chairman until August 24, 2009.

Immediately after confirmation, Mr. Fryzel faced the most severe crisis in the credit union industry’s history: The collapse of five large corporate credit unions threatened the future of all credit unions.

Through his leadership, Mr. Fryzel proposed to Congress the creation of the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund, a groundbreaking way to manage the costs of paying for the corporate credit union failures over time. The creation of the Stabilization Fund was a critical tool in helping to ease the immediate impact on the credit union system of the cost of resolving the corporate crisis. As Chairman, Mr. Fryzel also addressed the severe liquidity challenges facing the credit union industry by requesting and receiving from Congress the authority to increase the borrowing authority of the Central Liquidity Facility from $1.5 billion to $41.5 billion.

In addition to tackling the problems facing all federally insured credit unions during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Mr. Fryzel promoted the Credit Union Homeowner Affordability Relief Program and the Credit Union Homeowner System Investment Program. Through these innovative initiatives, NCUA borrowed funds from the Federal Financing Bank and made loans to credit unions at a time when liquidity needs escalated significantly. These initiatives brought much-needed liquidity from outside the credit union system and ensured that credit unions continued to lend to their members during a time of unprecedented market turmoil.

Additionally, during his chairmanship, Mr. Fryzel addressed the significant structural challenges in the agency’s supervision of credit unions. He began the process of hiring and training sufficient examiner staff to ensure NCUA could fulfill the agency’s core responsibilities as a federal regulator and insurer of credit unions. Mr. Fryzel also overhauled examination operations with his initiative requiring NCUA to contact all credit unions on a 12-month cycle. This supervision strategy has resulted in a stronger and safer industry by allowing potential problems at credit unions to be addressed proactively and protecting the Share Insurance Fund from potential losses. And, he implemented the National Exam Team to focus on large, troubled credit unions due to their growing complexity and potential risk to the Share Insurance Fund.

Prior to his NCUA service, Mr. Fryzel was an attorney in private practice specializing in financial, regulatory and real estate law. In that capacity, he represented credit unions and other financial services providers, as well as various trade organizations.

An Illinois native, Mr. Fryzel moved into private practice after a career in Illinois state government. His career began as Director of Administration and Fiscal Manager in the Governor’s Office of Human Resources and culminated as Director of the Illinois Department of Financial Institutions from 1982 to 1989. In the intervening years, Mr. Fryzel was staff assistant to both the Illinois Speaker of the House and the House Minority Leader. At the Illinois Department of Financial Institutions, he worked as Supervisor in the Currency Exchange Division, Administrator of the Unclaimed Property Division, and Supervisor of the Consumer Credit Division. Additionally, Mr. Fryzel served as DUI Prosecutor for the Illinois Secretary of State and Hearing Officer for the Motor Vehicle Review Board.

A member of the Illinois and District of Columbia bar associations, Mr. Fryzel was Commissioner of the Illinois Court of Claims from 1989 to 2003 and served on Illinois Governor’s Task Force on Financial Services and the Governor’s Financial Institution Transition Team. Mr. Fryzel also sat on the Illinois Governor’s Board of Credit Union Advisors from 1992 until his NCUA Board appointment.

Michael E. Fryzel holds a BS degree in Business Administration from Valparaiso University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a JD from Loyola University School of Law. Mr. Fryzel and his wife, Gloria, have three children, Scott, Brian and Kimberly, and six grandchildren.